Higgins will light up the tarmac battle

Saturday, January 13, 2007

By Sammy Hamill

But it might have been even better - it might have been Kris Meeke in a PH Sport Citroen Xsara!

No disrespect to British champion Mark, as talented as he is popular over here, but we've longed for the day when we would see the ultimate tarmac car on the top tarmac championship in the world. And driven by Ireland's most exciting young driver - what a prospect that would have been.

I understand talks took place over the past couple of weeks but in the end it didn't happen. The reasons? I don't really know although Meeke's reluctance to step outside the Citroen 'family' may have played a part.

What appears to have happened is that Meeke, who announced before Christmas that he was turning his back on the World championship after failing to secure a drive in a full WRC car, was approached about his availability to drive a Pirelli Subaru in the Tarmac series.

He was certainly interested but floated the idea of using a Xsara instead of a Subaru - an idea he pursued with PH Sport, the Citroen satellite team who ran his S1600 C2 in the Junior World championship last season. They were, I'm told, agreeable

Then it all went cold.

By last Wednesday it emerged that the drive - in a Subaru - had gone to two-time Ulster Rally winner Higgins, the British champion becoming part of a two-car Pirelli team with former Tarmac champion Derek McGarrity.

It is, of course, good news for the Tarmac championship and with an announcement expected shortly that young Welshman Gareth Jones is joining the new Reid Transport team to drive an 05 WRC Ford Focus, the challenge to champion Eugene Donnelly in his new S12 Subaru is gathering force.

But Meeke in a Xsara - that would have raised the championship to an entirely new level.

Remember the Dungannon driver on the Ulster Rally last August? He led the event (albeit briefly) in a 1600cc Citroen C2. He went on to finish the first leg in second place behind Donnelly's WRC Toyota Corolla and even in the torrential rain of the second leg he was still running fourth in the little two-wheel-drive flier until the C2 aqua-planed off the road.

What would he do in a Xsara, the type of car that has taken Sebastien Loeb to three successive World titles?

Even with the official Citroen team absent in 2006 while they concentrated on the development of their new C4, and Kronos Racing entrusted with running Xsaras for Loeb, the Frenchman still retained the World championship - and this despite missing the final four rounds after breaking his shoulder in a mountain bike accident.

The Xsara has never been seen on an Irish event and it seems an enormous opportunity has been missed. No doubt there were good reasons but I can't help feeling somebody let the chance to reap a mass of publicity slip by.

Meanwhile, Higgins kicks off his campaign to wrest the Tarmac title from triple champion Donnelly on the Galway International next month.

There is, however, a complication for Higgins. He is also committed to the British championship, a series which is restricted to Group N production cars and which shares three rounds with the Irish series.

It means that on the Jim Clark Rally, the Rally Isle of Man and the Ulster International he will have to drive a production car, probably an N12 Subaru Impreza.

The hope is that even in a production car Higgins can score sufficient points on the rounds which double up in both championships to sustain a serious challenge for Donnelly's title.

He will join a Galway line-up that is to include former World champion Marcus Gronholm who is using the top event as preparation for Rally Ireland, in November.

Ford's M-Sport team are, in fact, fielding a pair of 06 WRC Focuses in Galway for the Finn and Ireland's Gareth MacHale, who is scheduled to contest up to 10 rounds of the World championship this year.